Worship

It's been intriguing, as we have spent time in Nepal and India, to observe the worship which is such a part of everyday life. Shines, mostly Hindu, some buddist, adorn almost every corner, alleyway, shop, cafe and home you pass. They are not mere ornaments, or old relics left from days gone by. They are such an integral part of the daily ritual of life. From the water (and food etc) offerings known as “puja” that shop keepers make as they sprinkle the pavement in

front of their shops to the woman on the way to the market who, on autopilot, slips down a side alley to a large square and approaches the shine there ringing the bell and walking around the shrine clockwise, spinning the prayer wheels as she goes. We have watched, in the big temples, streams of people purchase plates of food and flowers on the road leading to the temple then wind their way to the god of wealth, mahalaxmi, to offer their recently purchased plate.

Offering such a plate, which costs 55 indian rupees (about 75p) is, according to the man I spoke to, certain to mean the god will answer your request. The temples are about the only place we've seen Indian's actually queue! They queue for ages to make their offerings to the gods, getting just a few seconds at the shine to push their offerings forward.

Everyone seems to be making a spiritual pilgrimage, and every event or circumstance is seen as a result of the planets, or the stars. We met a family, a man, his children and his mother, on a train journey who were on a journey to a temple far from home. They were going to pray to the god there for the mans marriage. He told us that, because of where the planets were when he was born he was destined to have problems in marriage. He went bald young and so it was difficult to have him married off, but his mother prayed to this god and he got married. Now his wife lives somewhere different from him because she has an allergic reaction when she is near him so instead of spending their wedding anniversary together he is off to the temple with his mum to pray.

Of course the shrines contain images of the gods, over 3,000,000 in Hinduism...rather hard to keep track of and quite a number to have to appease! Some have huge statues of the “deity”.

For us, as people who know, love and follow Jesus, it has brought the scriptures very much alive. Suddenly the many passages, both in the old and new testaments, which deal with idol

worship are so explicitly clear and relevant. It seems to us almost as though Paul, the apostle in the Bible, could have been standing at our side at times speaking into the very situations we were witnessing. Just like in the times of the new testament we could see that “they...exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” Romans 1:23 and that “they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator.” Romans 1:25.

Our impressions are that most of the people we have met or observed are enslaved to their religion, having to make sacrifices to so many gods in the desperate hope their prayers will be answered. We have appreciated in a new way our freedom in Christ, and I understand even better now how amazing it is that the gift of life God gives us is absolutely free!

Of course, we are not trying to say that what we have seen here in terms of worship is exclusive to the east. In the west we are the same, enslaved often to our material possessions. It's just been so explicitly clear here to see and so embedded in the culture and in each individual's life.

We thank God, as I write this on Good Friday, for what he sacrificed so that we could know Him. We thank God for the cross. We thank God that we know “that in all things God works for the good of those who love him” Romans 8:28, that we don't have to appease God, we just need to believe in Him and trust him. What a good God we have :o)

Postcards, photo.......hashish?

If you know us very well, or even a little bit, you will understand that we are not the most likely targets for drug dealers. We certainly don't go looking for them and aren't your typical stoned looking marijuana smoking hippy. So we are a little perplexed as to why, especially me (John), are offered on a relatively regular basis drugs and supposed pleasures of varying content. I know some of you will be shouting at the screen about how naïve we must be and that they target me because its usually guys who are looking for said toxin. Let us assure you we are aware of this and isn't the purpose of the blog entry. No the purpose is to divulge the inventiveness and resourcefulness of the Indian (and Nepali) people who are partaking in this particular career.

When we landed in Delhi we stayed in Parhar Ganj, which for those of you have not been to Delhi, is the backpacking centre of the city. It's dusty, dirty and unfortunately can be quite dangerous with a history of drug dealing and prostitutes etc... We were aware of this and were not surprised to have people hiding in shady corners stealthily approaching you and hushing the words 'something to smoke my friend, you have good time?' We found this quite hilarious considering they were barking up the completely wrong tree and with the frequency it happened. It could be quite irritating though as they sometimes where very Indian about it and walk right across you, causing you to walk right round them. What was interesting though, and started to become quite a regular pattern across India and Nepal, was that you would be walking down the street, a rickshaw driver would shout 'Hello, Rickshaw?' and after you just past them a low, deep whisper would pass across your little ear bones 'Hashish?' It was not limited to rickshaw drivers but street sellers, tour guides and even photographers at major landmarks? One particularly hilarious moment was when we were walking along the main road in Pokhara, Nepal back to our hotel when a man started the usual 'something to smoke etc....' We smiled politely and walked past as he started running through his list of concoctions 'Acid, E....' and then completely out of the blue shouted at the top of his voice 'anything............SEX!!!' This of course was too much to handle and we just burst out laughing in the middle of the street. After this we thought we had seen and heard it all, however we were proved wrong as we stood and looked at the Gateway to India in Mumbai. A man selling postcards and offering pictures in front of it approached us and inquired if we would like to purchase a book of 20 postcards? We said 'no thank you' and turned to look out to sea, he then appeared next to me and opened up one of the books to show me some dried flowers along with the phrase 'something special my friend?' We just turned and laughed at him because the situation was just so hilarious. We look forward to what new and inventive ways we shall be offered drugs, not for the contents of the offer themselves but merely as pure entertainment.

Again some more photos, this time from Jaipur and Mumbai.

An Indian railway tale.....

After our 'Escape from Delhi' (see an Indian weekend) experience Louise and I were understandably nervous about our next train journey to Kolkata. We had negotiated the entire width of Nepal (about 800km/500miles) by bus and the shared jeeps up and down from Darjeeling were a really enjoyable experience, apart from me having to avoid the drivers hand as he groped for the gearstick. So as we walked into the train station checking and re-checking our ticket with the announcements being relayed over the tannoy system we were pleased to hear our train being announced, albeit on a different platform from the information board, would be arriving shortly. We dashed over the bridge to the new platform and onto the train, squeezing through with our backpacks to our seats. We sat down to compose ourselves and were then asked the following question 'Breakfast? Dinner? You want?' We should explain our only experience of Indian trains at this point was the tourist train to Agra where you are given a bottle of water, fed tea and coffee and even a meal. We therefore presumed that this would be the case for all trains and answered 'yes' to the railway staff member in front of us. What was presented before us was cold, not included and a bloody rip-off!!!! Anyway, we learned our lesson and over the course of the past 10 days we have caught 4 trains, traveled 3500km and been prepared for every one.

The Indian railway is immense to say the least, the engineering involved is just simply mind boggling. It covers most areas of the country, which isn't that small by the way, and is very well used by the local population. Louise and I have had to make use of the foreign tourist quota quite a few times to ensure we get a ticket for our desired destination. The booking
system is quite complicated until you get used to it. You have to fill out a booking form which you collect from the ticket window, fill it out, re-join the queue, handover the form, see if there is any availability, if no availability re-fill the form, check again, if successful hand over your passports, pay your money (in cash of course) and get your ticket. I think the average time it has taken us to book a ticket is about 40 mins to an hour, and that includes the trying to book the 10km Darjeeling toy train ride specifically aimed at tourists.

We have to admit our guard is up quite a lot when people start talking to us, we are very reluctant to give out too much info and sometimes we end conversations prematurely to avoid questions we don't want to answer. We have discovered though that there is a great difference from those who are trying to deceive you and those who are genuinely interested in you.

The trains are a great place to meet people because you are in them for so long. Our journey times range from 7 hours to 18 and you are there with up to 72 other people. We met a lovely man who was traveling with his mother and young son the other day. His first questions were the same as all the others 'What country are you from' 'Where are you going' but then they diverse into 'what do you think of India' 'What is your country like' and just want to know about you and your life. The conversations we are having now with people are all about what we think of India, how can it be improved and, believe it or not, the frustrations they have with their own country! The Indians are a very proud people and usually wanting to do something for their country, they are just not sure how to go about it.

We have learned a lot on the trains of India, not just about avoiding getting scammed, but more about the Indian people. They are a nation of sharers, something which we learned back in the slums of Delhi. We have sat and watched as complete strangers share their food with each other, chat to each other as if they are long lost friends and even spreading this kindness to us and introducing them. We were invited to a random shop somewhere in Mumbai, even given us a mobile number when the mobile owner doesn't speak English?!? It's this type of random unawareness mixed in with the generosity that helps you really warm to the people and we are really starting to enjoy India.

These photos are a random collection from our travels in Kolkata and Varanasi so far hope you enjoy.

Kathmandu to Darjeeling, Dal Bhat and a very long bus journey.

Well we managed to make it to Kathmandu, we splashed out and spent an extra 90p each and took a tourist bus from Pokhara which was literally worth every penny, about a metre of legroom, allocated seats and only two stops for breakfast and lunch. Unfortunately we were dumped unceremoniously in a random part of Kathmandu, and we along with a random Swede remonstrated with the bus staff who, after admiring my caribina on my rucksack, told us this was the last stop and the bus wasn't going any further. Funnily enough there were plenty of taxi's and hotel touts in the area who were very 'helpful'. We ended up, with the random Swede, in a taxi with a tout who appeared to be drunk and driven approximately 500 yards to Thamel where we would reside for the following 4 nights. We were a bit disappointed in this as we had been very impressed with Nepal in the lack of advantage taking there was during our time here. That said we weren't too fussed as we had braced ourselves for a bit of an assault when we reached Kathmandu and were pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't anything like Delhi in terms of chaos, dust, noise etc... We have commented regularly that Delhi was a very good training ground in terms of traffic, touts and hassle.

Anyway Kathmandu was fine and we enjoyed walking the streets of Thamel, picking up a few traveling souvenirs. Bartering though is much harder there as they are so nice, it almost feels like you are robbing their children's inheritance by asking it for 50 rupees less! We also went to Patan which is just outside Kathmandu and enjoyed walking it's relatively quiet streets and it's excellent museum. We did witness some kind of dance scene being filmed on one of the

temples in Durbar Square which could have been a tv advert, a bollywood film or an international advert for visit Nepal. We watched as the directors assistant chased people off the temple, pushed back the thronging crowds and shout instructions to all the dancers.

When the time came we were ready to leave Nepal and we psyched ourselves up for the 17 hour bus journey to the Eastern border at Karkabhitta for our onward journey to Darjeeling in India. We made it to the bus station with about 250 rupees (about £2) in our pocket and sat down to wait for our bus which was due to leave at 3pm. At 2.40 a bus pulled up and we inquired if it was going to Karkabhitta, yes it was, was this the same bus on our ticket? No. To cut a long story short 3 hours, 6 buses and many broken conversations with many nepali passengers (and bus station staff) later we were shown to our seats on our long awaited journey to the east.

At this point I would like to describe what the journey was like but I'm going to save that pleasure for my psychotherapist when we return to the UK as it would probably give me nightmares. Steep Himalayan roads, mentally unstable bus drivers and various amounts of fitful sleeps is all I (John) can manage right now.

So we arrived at Darjeeling approximately 24 hours later to find what can only be described as city on a hill, a very steep one at that. The Lonely Planet travel guide we have with us describes it as a quintessential hill town, we found it to be a bit of concrete overload with some pretty spectacular views when the clouds clear. All in all it has been nice to have a bit of time to plan our further travel through India. We went on the Steam toy train and visited

the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute which was founded by Tenzing Norgay who climbed Everest with Sir Edmund Hilary. It was very humbling to read of the attempts of everest, to see the woolen jumpers and tweed jackets the first attempts were made in. However we almost had to contact the police when Larry went missing during our visit to the happy valley tea plantation. All was well though, we found him among the tea bushes looking a little giddy from tea overload. Later having gone a bit cold turkey he muttered something about 'Can't beat a tea bag in a mug!' We had a good stern chat with him about having too much of a good thing and he's still in a huff.

We head soon to the heat of the Indian south with many more stories and travels to entertain (hopefully) There will be photo's to follow, internet is quite slow in the mountains.